Why This Error Happens
Error 360 occurs when an application or system process tries to perform an NTFS operation—such as enabling compression, creating sparse files, using Transactional NTFS (TxF), or running deduplication/VSS snapshots—on a volume mounted in DAX (Direct Access) mode. DAX volumes are designed for byte-addressable access to persistent memory (PMem/NVDIMM) and intentionally skip the traditional file system caching layer, so several standard NTFS features are unsupported by design. This isn’t corruption; it’s a feature-compatibility limitation between the requested operation and the way the volume was formatted.
Step-by-Step Resolution Guide
- Confirm the volume is in DAX mode.
Open an elevated Command Prompt and run:
fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo D:
Replace D: with the drive letter from the error. Look for Is DAX Volume : YES in the output.
- Identify the unsupported operation.
Check the application or script log right before Error 360 appears. Common triggers include:
- Enabling NTFS compression or sparse file attributes
- Running
vssadminsnapshots or backup software on the DAX volume - Attempting deduplication or TxF transactions
- Reformat the volume without DAX mode (if the feature is required).
Back up all data first, then use PowerShell to recreate the volume in standard mode:
Format-Volume -DriveLetter D -FileSystem NTFS -IsDax $false -Confirm:$false
This converts the volume to normal NTFS behavior, restoring support for compression, sparse files, and shadow copies.
-
Update persistent memory drivers.
Go to Device Manager > Persistent memory devices, right-click your NVDIMM/PMem controller, and select Update driver. Outdated drivers can misreport volume capabilities and trigger unnecessary DAX-restricted calls. -
Adjust the application configuration.
If reformatting isn’t an option, configure the offending application (backup tool, dedup job, etc.) to exclude the DAX volume from operations that require compression, sparse allocation, or snapshotting.
Alternative or Verification Steps
- After reformatting or reconfiguring, re-run the failing operation and confirm Error 360 no longer appears in Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System.
- If you need to keep the volume in DAX mode, redirect the specific workload (e.g., backups, dedup) to a standard NTFS volume instead of trying to force compatibility on the persistent memory volume.